I am Joe

Tip o' the Hat to Iowahawk.



I am Joe.

I am just another American with the usual bag of hopes, fears, strengths, and flaws.

I am Joe.

I am an American who wants to succeed or fail through my own work.

I am Joe.

I am an American who still believes in the First Amendment, in citizens participating in the political process, in expressing disagreement with others' ideas without becoming disagreeable about it.

I am Joe.

I am an American who believes that I have the right to ask tough questions of those who seek my vote, and that it's utterly reasonable to expect serious answers to those tough questions.

I am Joe.

I am an American who now wonders if my disagreement with The One, Barack Hussein Obama (PBUH) will someday result in a howling cybermob demanding my scalp.

I am Joe.

I am an American who now wonders if my disagreement with The One, Barack Hussein Obama (PBUH) will someday result in the press spending 48 hours to dig up every last bit of possibly-embarrassing information on myself, my wife, or my daughter.

I am Joe.

I am an American who has just discovered that, in Iowahawk's immortal words, "Web 2.0 turned into Berlin 1932.0."

I am Joe.

And if the fact that I am Joe offends you . . .

Bring.

It.

On.

I am Joe.

The abominable Fred Phelps...

Reading about the lawsuit filed against Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church leaves me with mixed emotions.

On the one hand, it is nice to see that Phelps has to answer for his despicable actions in court. He and his batch of bigots (these thugs are NOT a church) have desecrated the funerals of America's fallen heroes and have brought untold pain to their families. Their misuse of the First Amendment is disgusting. There is no other word for it.

On the other hand, one has to be grateful that we do have that freedom. But some days, that gratitude is greatly tempered.

Why Liz Mair is off...

Liz Mair thinks Governor Whitman is off in assuming John McCain cannot win the nomination.

I think Governor Whitman is close to the mark, though. McCain has several big albatrosses around his neck. The biggest is campaign finance reform - and his continuing campaign against free speech (albeit that is not what he intends). Others will include the Gang of 14, his alignment with gun-control advocates on gun shows, and his opposition to the President over detainee treatment. The zampolit wing will also hammer McCain for his public stance in favor of a comprehensive bill (one case where he is correct to buck the base).

McCain is the media's GOP front-runner for 2008. The real front-runner for the GOP nomination is probably Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney. Any of the three would be good Presidents, but I will admit I lean towards Romney at this time.

Gutsy...

A member of the House of Lords, the upper half of the British Parliament, has called on Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe to resign over their letter to ExxonMobil.

The letter was inexcusable in a country where freedom of speech is explicitly protected. Particularly when there is controversy over global warming and there is no proof that the Kyoto Treaty will do any good.

That said, this British lord went out of bounds just a little bit. This should be done by media outlets across the country - because if you can force a corporation to shut up because you don't like what they are saying, will media outlets far behind?